WARNING BY VERWOERD

Press, Volume C, Issue 29402, 3 January 1961, Page 10

WARNING BY VERWOERD

“No Interference By C wealth” (NJS. Prtn Assoeiottoo—Copyright) CAPE TOWN, December 31. The South African Prime Minister (Dr. Verwoerd) said in a New Year message to the nation that the Union was not prepared to allow “interference" in her domestic policies as a price for continued membership of the Commonwealth. He said that at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' conference in London next March he would "sincerely endeavour to ensure” that South Africa remained a member of the Commonwealth. But he said: "It must remain understood that South Africa will not be prepared to pay the price for this of allowing interference in her domestic policies, of sacrificing principles on which her Government has been repeatedly elected since 1948, or of submitting to any reflection on her sovereignty or her national honour.” He also asked whether the "overcrowded United Nations organisation" should not give way to a smaller body of “really responsible nations of the world.” Tle United Nations had become more of a platform where problems were created and aggravated. he said, and “the growing membership of often inexperienced nations apparently makes it a less likely instrument of peace than ever before. The burden, both of financing and preserving it as a responsible organisation is increasingly pressing heavier, on especially a few of the Western nations.”

The president of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Mr A. J. Fergusson, said yesterday that South Africa was "overworking” the argument about its racial policies being misunderstood abroad.

“Far from South Africa being misunderstood overseas, the present policy may be very well understood—but disliked intensely because it runs counter to what is acceptable in the free world today,” he said. He said that South Africa had suffered some severe shocks during the year, including the loss of 40 per cent, of its gold and foreign exchange reserves. But the biggest economic blow had been the loss of foreign confidence and the withdrawal of foreign capital.